Looking Past Fiscal Cliff to Fixing Taxes

By

Gerald F. Seib

Updated Nov. 12, 2012 5:44 p.m. ET

Let's imagine you just landed from Mars and discovered that America's political system is in gridlock, and its economy is being held hostage. What, you would ask, is the giant problem creating all this trouble?

The big dispute, you would discover, is over whether the top individual marginal tax rate should be 35% (the rate established under...